I have always wanted to buy my boys a powered car 12V. We live in country so it would have to be able to work on grass as well as rocks and concrete. 5yr old and 2yr old boys, so I want one with a passenger seat.
Any good suggestions?
Do they actually work longer than a day? Are they worth the high price tags? Any suggestions on good/bad models or features?
Thank you!!!
Buy new. Buy one that uses the battery you can get at Walmart. Do not buy the camaro??? which had a special $75 battery. If you keep them charged and keep big kids off them, they last.
We bought our boys the John Deere Gator by Peg Perego five years ago and it is still going strong! It is very durable and my kids LOVE it!!! Here is a picture of the 'newer' model:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/John-Deere-Gator-XUV-Battery-Po...
They drive it around the yard, to the mail box, help take trash to the end of the street, etc. We'll drive it to the neighbors' houses and they love to put stuff in the back! I really can't say enough about it. It was worth every penny! We had a 3rd boy (he is 2 now) and we're actually thinking of getting another one!!
My daughter is 18 now but by age 3 we bought a Barbie Jeep for her and it was well used.
As for the battery, we bought an extra one so that we always had 1 fully charged battery.
She used the Jeep for years and we finally gave it to some neighbors who used it several years as well.
It was a fun, well used toy at our house.
Totally worth it!!!! We had a John Deere, just for one kid, but they make them with 2 seats, also. We live in the country, too, and our son rode many, many miles on his John Deere. He eventually graduated to a golf cart at age 6, and I credit the John Deere in "teaching" him to drive. By the way... you can buy additional batteries on ebay for a lot less than a store. We always had 2 batteries because our son rode the thing so much that we had to have a back-up battery charged at all times. Enjoy!
My 3 yr old has been driving his "four wheeler" since he was 2. He loves it! The battery doesn't last long,but they are rechargeable. Our 12V battery died and they are expensive! We learned that by changing a few wires around, you can use a $20 lawnmower battery in it! He doesn't get in a lot of drive time before it needs to be charged because he is constantly going up and down hills (what fun is the flat part of the yard?!?!), but he doesn't seem to mind. I say BUY ONE!
One more redneck addition: my son's tires didn't get very good traction, as they were just hard plastic. My husband cut the tread off a set of old four-wheeler tires and screwed it to the plastic tires. Works fabulously!
My boys got the black Escalade from their Auntie when they were little. It worked but we literally left the battery charging the whole time it wasn't being used!
If you have lots of space for them to drive it, especially if you can just send them outside by themselves safely (you sound like you live on a nice chunk of land) then they will have a blast with it and get a ton of use out of it.
We live in the suburbs and get a lot of snow...so they didn't get as much use out of it before they outgrew it, (for the $$) so to me it was a waste of my sister's money...but they do work and are very cool!
Back in the day, we purchased a used one. It was a Jeep.. It came with a battery, but we also purchased a second battery. The battery does not last very long.. so this way we could switch them out while one was recharging.
You are correct, they are perfect for driveways..But they now do make the ones that can handle grassy areas.
We have a john deer pickup that the bed raises and lowers. We love it. I have a 6 and a two year old. I thought that they were way over priced and they were given it for a gift. That said they love it. the 2yo is learning to drive with big bros help. It is a two seater and carries them both well. they are both on the tall side. She could drive just has not figured out how not to hit things. I like the bed that we can haul things in. I have had him carry buckets of weeds to and from the garden for me. they drive on gravel, pavement and grass. Battery....it last a long time on pavement and less on the other items and if you are going up hills a lot. We just plug it in when we come in it is really easy to do. We have had ours out in the snow and ice and it ran fine just be prepared to give them a little pull or shove to get it off the ice when they are stuck. We walk our neighborhood which is a 1/2 mile loop and it will make it around 3 times with energy for playing on the grass. It would go more around be we have a walk a lap for every ride a lap they do. Walking first so they usually choose to just do three. Any questions please feel free to contact me. One thing to think about is where you are going to park it as they do take quite a bit of space and it is not recommended to keep them outside.
